


Daisy Chain

by astraielle, ghoulaesthetics (astraielle)



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: F/M, Introspection, Prompt Fic, pre ship kinda idk its going in the tag regardless theres like 10 fics rn its fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:28:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25826683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astraielle/pseuds/astraielle, https://archiveofourown.org/users/astraielle/pseuds/ghoulaesthetics
Summary: They talked, sometimes. She knew Jake found her interesting. A lot of people did. The mileage varied greatly on how good that was for her. It wasn’t nearly as perverse with him as with some others, though, and while she didn't feel all that special, she allowed it. Besides, with Nog off at the academy, there had been no one else around In his age bracket to speak with. As for her own social circle... well. She wasn’t really in a position to be picky about the company she kept.Not that she would tell him to leave her alone even if she was.
Relationships: Jake Sisko/Tora Ziyal
Comments: 5
Kudos: 20





	Daisy Chain

**Author's Note:**

> Jacob’s Ladder - Come down/Come back

_[You’re coming back to DS9?]_

Jake’s message blinked on the padd, still flashing unread. It’s not like it was a secret, really; more like she figured that between her father retaking the station and the Federation being forcibly removed, it just wasn’t all that important. 

They talked, sometimes. She knew Jake found her interesting. A lot of people did. The mileage varied greatly on how good that was for her. It wasn’t nearly as perverse with him as with some others, though, and while she didn't feel all that special, she allowed it. Besides, with Nog off at the academy, there had been no one else around In his age bracket to speak with. As for her own social circle... well. She wasn’t really in a position to be picky about the company she kept. 

Not that she would tell him to leave her alone even if she was. 

_[And if I am? You’re not really in a position to judge there, you know. Can’t forget your daring act of staying behind in an active conflict zone.]_

A challenge, sort of. Ziyal figured out pretty quickly that most people expected her to be somewhat mousy in personality, simply because she was quiet. A part of her was always going to be amused when they discovered that her default state was rather endearingly prickly. 

She could picture the rolling of eyes that would earn her. They’d only met a handful of times in person, building a friendship through instant messages instead, but Jake’s body language was anything but subtle. His expressiveness reminded her a bit of a Bajoran, curiously. 

_[Come on, it was a little bit impressive, right? It wasn’t exactly easy to dodge Odo and Starfleet security at the same time. And don’t change the subject. Are you? Thought you were in school?]_

Ziyal’s turn to roll her eyes. Fondly, of course. She had nothing to compare her friendship to Jake Sisko with--she was the only child in the Breen camp, her parents weren’t the type of people to volley back to her, Kira had taken on what she assumed was a sibling-type role, and she couldn’t really say that she had made any real friends here either. 

Her fingernails made soft _tics_ as she typed away a response. She’d painted them red three weeks ago, and still hadn’t bothered to clean off the last chips of polish. 

_[Oh yes, hiding behind crates and in supply closets, how could I forget? Very daring. I’m sure your heroics had all the Dabo girls swooning. Anyway, to answer your question, was. Was in school, as in past tense. So I’m packing up and coming back, I should be on a transport in a few days.]_

It was a pleasant distraction from packing up her suitcases and trying to find an efficient way to store canvases for the trip. 

She bit back a small grin at the lightning-fast response, no doubt fuelled by wounded pride. 

_[Ouch haha. For the record, there were a couple sprints across empty hallways in there too, just to add some variety._

_Won’t lie, I’m kind of surprised to hear that. Major Kira said you were doing great there?]_

She started to shrug, before remembering she was sitting alone next to a stack of unfolded clothes on her bed. Work wise, she supposed that was true--even the professors that were reluctant to acknowledge her presence in class at the start of the semester had to grudgingly give out the high marks she deserved. The statement seemed to imply that the ‘great’ aspect of things was present in all areas of her life, which she didn’t really want to get into. She deflected instead, not trusting herself not to give that away and not really answering much of anything. 

_[Huh, almost sounds like you don’t want me to come back.]_

_[Not true and you know it! I’m just naturally inquisitive.]_

_[Ah, so he’s using me for his news article content. How flattering.]_

_[See, if you were back already, you would’ve heard that noise I just made and you’d know exactly how frustrating this is.]_

_[No words to describe it? Aren’t you supposed to be a writer?]_

_[Ziyal. You’re killing me.]_

She snorted out a laugh and felt lighter than she had been in weeks. The Bajoran students could handle sarcasm just fine, but for some reason, her jokes and deadpan observations seemed to be taken more literally than needed. _She_ thought she was funny. It wasn’t her fault that no one else seemed to be operating on the same frequency. Jake was close, though, and that was nice. 

_[Who, me? Wouldn’t dream of it. Who else could I count on for all the latest and greatest updates from the Promenade?]_

His next reply began with three emojis, all rolling their eyes. It made her snicker. 

_[Laugh all you want, it’s better than whatever’s coming out of Weyoun’s office these days.]_

_[That bar is so low it’s underground and you know it.]_

_[..._

_I’m not mad because you’re right, I’m mad because it’s working against me.]_

_[lol]_

The idea had crossed her mind before that her correspondence was being potentially monitored, but after the third conversation, she decided she didn’t really care. It wasn’t a big confidential secret or anything, and nothing too personal that she would be embarrassed of being confronted about later. 

_[Let’s just spare my dignity and move on, yeah? Truce?]_

_[Mercy. For now. No promises once I get back.]_

_[Right, right. So we’re on for the Klingon restaurant to settle this when you get back right?]_

_[I’ll be there. Don’t forget your notes Jake--it’ll be less embarrassing for you when you admit defat this time.]_

_[We’ll see about that one this time.]_

_[Looking forward to it.]_

She debated on typing the word ‘home’ at the end, but her hand was on the _send_ button before she could finish the thought. That’s what the station was, wasn’t it? Home? 

_Home is where the heart is_. A Terran saying Garak had shared, something he picked up during his lunches with Dr Bashir. He’d been trying to make some sort of point to her, or maybe it was a misplaced attempt at comfort. She didn’t miss the bitter undercurrent of the words when he spoke them. The sentiment behind it was clear enough--home wasn’t necessarily a place, but the things and people one was emotionally connected to the most. She didn’t really feel as though there was anything for her to take away from it. 

Garak was interesting, but she often felt as though she was being used more as a vaguely Cardassian-shaped sounding board while he was in exile, or something softer to project his own anxieties on. 

So _home is where the heart is_. Deeply ironic coming from Garak, and functionally useless to her. There had never been anything that her heart could get attached to. 

But then--Deep Space 9 was there waiting for her to come back to. And if she thought about it, the familiarity had become comforting. Not without cycling through multiple feelings that all fell under the umbrella of ‘unsettling’ and ‘unidentified’ first, of course. And much as she despised travelling, the thought of being back was...nice. So was the thought of leaving here. 

The idea of returning anywhere in her life had always been fraught. But perhaps this would be something she could settle into--at least for now. That was more than enough of a reason for her to come back.


End file.
